This was a beautiful book and easy read. I am reminded that one of my best friends had a fellow house mom from her previous university assume she was going to take care of her when she died and wanted to move in. It was a very weird situation, but she declined, and the woman never talked to her again (and died having intruded in, without asking, on another person).
I had a dad die of cancer, and it was my highest privilege to be with him in his last days. We had a bunch of people though. It wasn't all on me. So, "many hands made light work." I cannot imagine the load on the character in this book.
It is a worthy read.
Here is why James Mustich thinks it should be one of the 1000 Books You Read Before You Die:
The Spare Room chronicles the experience of a novelist named Helen whose Melbourne life is upended when Nicola, an old friend in the final stages of terminal cancer, arrives for an extended visit. Although the book is labeled a novel, the connection between the characters and situations the book describes mirrors real events in Garner’s life, calling into question the nature of its fiction (to the consternation of several critics when The Spare Room was published). Regardless, the frankness of the telling is revelatory: Helen’s impatience with Nicola’s faith in the quack course of treatment that has brought her from Sydney, Nicola’s indulgence of her own desperation, and the harsh realities of disease, friendship, and looming mortality are rendered with striking candor, whether the emotion of the moment be anger or tenderness.
